PROBATION SYSTEM IN CRISIS
Documents and interviews show that state probation chief Robert Lee Guy had known, at least since 2004, about shoddy work in Wake County that could threaten public safety.
Audio slide show: The N&O investigates the system.
Help get troopers cruising
Barry Saunders: If you can still afford to drive along, say, Interstate 85, you've seen one of the saddest sights known to man: Highway Patrol cruisers sitting by the side of the road with nobody in them.
Let 'em eat rotten lettuce
Saunders: It wasn't exactly a "Let them eat cake" moment, but -- hey, who are we kidding? That's exactly what it was.
One man devoted to voting
Saunders: A lot of people have told me they wish their grandparents, many of whom had been denied the right to vote, were around to witness what happened Tuesday in voting booths across North Carolina.
Paternity test was too late
Saunders: Be honest, fellas. How many of you have ever heard a judge say in response to your protests, "If you feed him long enough, he'll look like you"?
Yes, that's a horse in the carwash
OK, here's one for you to ponder. Fella goes into a carwash riding a horse.
Trooper no friend of dogs
Saunders:Mark my words, Tar Heel residents. We're fixing to witness the dawning of a new era of civility and lawfulness on North Carolina roads.
Johnston isn't laughing
Saunders:Forget Disneyland. The "hap-hap-happiest place on Earth" was right here in the Johnston County town of Four Oaks.
Just watch where you grow, Central
Barry Saunders:There's only one way to slow dance with a porcupine. Verrrry carefully. The board of trustees at N.C. Central University needs to heed that instruction.
Cabbies risking their lives
Saunders:As a desperate, perpetually broke newspaper publisher in the 1980s, I was offered jobs as, among other things, a porn actor, a convenience store clerk and a taxicab driver.
A vision for urban living
Saunders:Our text for today comes from the Gospel of Steve, where it says, "Verily I say unto thee: Tis better that thou shalt walketh wherever thou goest than crank up ye gas-guzzler and polluteth the air even more."
Why blacks and women should thank Bush
Saunders:Judging by recent opinion polls, few people are saying good things about the two terms of President George W. Bush.
BET boss runs amok
Saunders:Will somebody please tell Robert "Bobcat" Johnson to go sit himself down somewhere?
Autism no longer off radar
Saunders:David Laxton doesn't recall knowing a single autistic soul when he grew up in Lenoir in the 1970s and 1980s.
City now hitting its stride
Depending upon how you look at it, touting one's massive potential for growth can be perceived as a compliment or an insult, since it could indicate that you've hit rock bottom and have nowhere to go but up.
Black men, don't ask
Saunders:One cold, rainy evening last week, after settling in front of the television to watch Vanna spin those letters, I remembered a scheduled meeting.
Judge told it straight
Saunders:Don't know about you, but I hope that whatever Fulton County Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington of Atlanta came down with recently is catching.
School's starring role in an actor's life
Saunders:Don't tell me drug use in Hollywood is a new phenomenon. Take 1965-era television. Please.
The doc dispenses humor
Saunders:Retired Raleigh physician Dr. George C. Debnam grew up on a sharecropper's farm -- that's a farm that doesn't belong to you, but the owner lets you keep for yourself some of the food you grow in lieu of paying you.
Here's one applicant to watch out for
Barry Saunders:Marcia Conner may not have been the best city manager Durham or any other city ever had. But she obviously gives a great interview.
Raleigh's arena in isolation
Saunders:Ah yes. Now I get it.
Hey, lay off the reverend
Saunders:Man, y'all need to leave that man's preacher alone.
ACC is too loose on song
Saunders:Why, oh why would the tradition-bound, staid ACC Tourament adopt a hootchy song as its theme song?
Target them at an early age
The noise from the helicopter overhead nearly drowned out Gail Neely's voice as she told her seven kids to come inside for their twice-weekly meeting.
Don't let the evil divide us
Saunders:Hey, wait a minute, pal. I didn't kill anybody. Honest.
Racism and Mr. T. Wright
Saunders:Samuel Johnson - not the daddy of those no-account Johnsons who used to live next door to me with the barking dogs, but the English writer - called patriotism "the last refuge of a scoundrel."
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